Join us in welcoming Mr. Lon Wagner -- author, journalist, and Senior Director of Communications and Marketing at Virginia Tech – to our membership meeting on September 15, 2024. Mr. Wagner will discuss his new book The Fever: The Most Fatal Plague in American History.  Mr. Wagner will be selling and signing copies of his book after the presentation. 

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In June 1855, the steamer Benjamin Franklin arrived at the Gosport Navy Yard from St. Thomas and docked for repairs. The steamer carried Yellow Fever and unleashed an epidemic that killed almost 40 percent of the populations of Norfolk and Portsmouth. 

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Mr. Wagner graduated with a BA in English-journalism from the University of Delaware and a MS in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh. He has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize – once for his 14-part series in the Virginian-Pilot about the Yellow Fever epidemic.

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Be sure to join us on September 15, 2024, at 2pm at the Chesapeake Central Library for what promises to be an informative and engaging discussion. Be sure to bring a friend! We hope to see you there!